Too much time on my hands

I was reading a post from one of my favorite bloggers the other day who currently home schools her son. She was commenting on the fact that she rarely has any time for herself, and while she knows she is doing the right thing for her son at this point, she is still craving some alone time. This got me thinking about my situation, where I literally feel like I have too much time on my hands. Sam is gone for nearly 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. I'm very grateful that I don't have to sit by the phone dreading its ring for that 8 hours. This leaves my mind a blank slate. Anyone who knows me is aware of my many hobbies, and yes, I love to work on those, but something is definitely missing. For 11 years I had a cushy job where I came and went as I pleased, had an opportunity to get out of the house and mingle with adults (I use the term somewhat loosely here), and use my talents (if not my brain) to perform an in-demand service. Since the demise of that business in 2006, I've worked part time at the local library. While this has its good points (again, pretty much coming and going as I please, I'm actually using my brain, I have regular communication with my community, etc), there are plenty of negatives that I just can't get past, which is why I made the move to cut my hours back in June. I did this partly because I had a percieved opportunity to work at doing genealogy which so far hasn't panned out the way I had hoped it would. (actually the truth is probably more like I envisioned it to be way more than it ever was going to be in the first place!) Truthfully it was a good move to cut my library exposure down to one night a week, now my attitude about going there is much better, and I don't dread it like I used to. Still, the negatives remain there. So, I've been looking for another job in earnest since late summer. I scan Craig's list everyday looking for unique opportunities that won't bore me or insult my intelligence. (I'm getting pretty good at weeding out scam ads!) So far I'm coming up empty. As usual whenever I do any kind of research into anything, I feel like there must be some magical source that I'm not privy to that would have all the answers I am seeking. Where are all the classifieds for the cool jobs? I mean the ones where I get to go to some library or archives, get a research assignment, work on it on-site for awhile, then bring it home to work on it some more. Where are the opportunities that would allow me to hang out in a research room and help people navigate the stacks of books, the boxes of microfilm, or the tangly world wide web? Well, this week I decided what I was craving was a volunteer position, so I'm taking steps to make it happen. While ideally I'd like to get paid for such a thing as described above, maybe the first step is to get a foot in the door.